U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/612,560, entitled "METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR GENERATING COMIC PANELS," which was filed on Mar. 8, 1996, and which is assigned to a common assignee with the present application, describes a system for generating comic panels. FIG. 1 shows an example of comic panel 10 that is generated by the system. The comic panel 10 includes characters, such as character 18, and speech balloons 12. Each speech balloon holds text 14 for an associated character. The speech balloons 12 include pointing portions 16 that help a viewer to associate the speech balloons with their characters. The system determines where to position each character and where to position the speech balloons relative to the characters. In determining where to position the character, the system determines what direction the character should face and also determines the background for the comic panel. The text of the speech balloon is provided by a user of the comic generation system.
The comic generation system is well suited for use in a comic chat environment, where users on different computers interactively input text to communicate with each other. In this environment, each user has an associated character and communicates with other users by manipulating the appearance of the character and by providing text that is displayed within the speech balloons for the character. Such a comic chat environment is an alternative to a conventional chat session environment in which users simply input text to be a keyboard, and the text from all the participating members of the chat session is visible to all participants.
The system provides a user with a number of different character choices. When a user enters a chat session, the user must select from amongst those character choices. The system maintains a set of bitmaps for each of the characters to reflect different gestures and expressions. The system automatically selects gestures and expressions for a character based on the input text. The system searches the input text for emoticons, which are a series of characters that represent emotions. An example of an emoticon is ":-)", which indicates being happy and ":-(", which indicates being sad. The system maintains a list of emoticons, along with associated gestures and expressions. Upon finding an emoticon, the system modifies the expression (i.e., assigns a bitmap for display for the character that captures the expression) of the character to indicate happiness or sadness, respectively.
The system also searches the input text to identity acronyms that may provide clues as to the desired appearance for the character (i.e., the desired gesture and expression). For example, the acronym LOL is short for "laughing out loud." Upon finding LOL in the text, the system concludes that the character should be laughing and generates a laughing appearance for the character.
The system processes the text to look for text that is capitalized. Such capitalized text is viewed as an indication that a user intends for the character to be shouting. Accordingly, the system generates appearance for the character where the character is shouting when encountering such capitalized text.
When the system finds multiple indicators of gestures and expressions, the system attempts to draw each of the found gestures and expressions. There may be instances, however, where there is a conflict and the system employs a priority scheme to determine which expression and gesture should be assigned to the character.
One limitation of this system is that it is difficult for a user to convey irony or sarcasm. Moreover, it is often difficult for a user to convey a desired intensity of emotion. A character may have a single happy appearance and, thus, it may be difficult for a character to convey different degrees of happiness.